More Than 60 Democrats To Boycott Inauguration

A growing group of Democratic lawmakers will boycott President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday to protest what they described as his alarming and divisive policies, foreign interference in his election and his criticism of civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia.

There are now more than 60 House Democrats — 65, at last count — who have declared that they will not attend the inauguration on Capitol Hill this week. The number rose sharply after Trump tweeted Saturday that Lewis (D) is “all talk, talk, talk” and should “finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities.”

Lewis, who sees Trump’s Nov. 8 win as illegitimate because of Russia’s alleged interference in the election, is best known for leading civil rights protests in the 1960s, including the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., during which state troopers brutally attacked the crowd. Lewis will not attend the inauguration, he told NBC News in an interview for Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”